2026-02-01 02:09:47
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
CHAPTER 47: THE RULES
Vanessa arrived at Marcus's facility at 8:58 AM carrying a legal pad filled with questions she'd written the night before.Marcus noticed immediately. "You prepared.""I'm a lawyer. Or was. We prepare questions." She set the pad on his desk. "Twenty-three questions about the rebirth community. Organized by category. I need answers before we continue."Marcus picked up the pad, scanned the questions, smiled slightly. "You think systematically. That's good. Most people approach this emotionally. They want to know what it means for them personally. You want to understand the structure first.""Understanding the system tells me how to operate within it. Personal feelings are secondary.""Spoken like someone who's already stopped performing sentiment." Marcus set down the pad. "I'll answer all of these eventually. But first, I need to explain the rules. Because most of your questions assume rules exist and are enforced consistently. That's not how this works."He pulled up a document on hi
CHAPTER 46: THE HISTORY
Marcus was already at his desk when Vanessa arrived at 9:03 AM.He noticed things about her that hadn't been there three weeks ago. The way she moved through the door without hesitating. The way she scanned the room automatically before sitting. The way she'd stopped performing casualness and just existed in the space.Progress."You're different today," he said."I slept well. First time in weeks." Vanessa sat down, crossed her legs, set her coffee on the desk without asking permission. "I stopped feeling guilty about Tom Chen at approximately 2 AM. Woke up feeling clear.""What changed?""I realized guilt is just internalized social judgment. Other people's opinions about my choices lodged in my own head. And I stopped caring about other people's opinions somewhere around the third glass of wine." She met his eyes. "So. What are we doing today?"Marcus studied her for a moment. Then closed his laptop."Today we stop training tactics and start training context. Before you can operate
CHAPTER 45: THE MOTHER
Ethan's phone rang at 6:47 AM. His mother. He'd called her twice yesterday after she mentioned the church situation, but she hadn't answered. "Mom? Are you okay?" Silence. Then breathing. Shaky. Wrong. "Mom?" "Ethan." Her voice was barely a whisper. "There's someone in my house." His blood went cold. "What? Mom, get out—" "I can't. They're downstairs. I'm in my bedroom. Door locked. But Ethan, they left something. Slid it under the door. A photo." "What photo?" "It's me. At the grocery store yesterday. And another one of me at church on Sunday. And one of me sleeping. In my bed. Ethan, someone's been in my house. Multiple times. Watching me. And there's a note." Ethan was already moving, grabbing keys, heading for his car. "What does it say?" His mother's voice cracked. "It says 'Your son destroyed someone's life. Made her lose everything. Made her feel hunted. Vulnerable. Unsafe in her own home. Now you know how that feels. This is just a taste. Next time, we won't leave a
CHAPTER 44: THE BROKER
Ethan received the message at 11:43 PM. Not on his burner phone. On a phone he didn't own. That appeared on his doorstep in an unmarked box with no return address. The phone contained one contact. One message. You need services you can't acquire through normal channels. I provide those services. The Broker. Ethan stared at the phone. Considered throwing it away. Considered ignoring it. Then Tom called—on Ethan's regular burner—voice shaking. "They fired me. The SEC thing was fake but the firm didn't care. They said association with me was a liability. Ethan, my career is over. Twenty years, gone." Then Sharon called. "Someone leaked information about my firm to my biggest client. They're claiming I was part of your exposure campaign. Ethan, they terminated our contract. That was sixty percent of my revenue." Then his mother called. Crying. "The church asked me to step down from the women's committee. Someone sent them articles about you. About the leaked documents. They said ha
CHAPTER 43: FIRST BLOOD
Vanessa sat in Marcus's Brooklyn facility, watching multiple screens display the same scene from different angles. Tom Chen's apartment. Camera feeds from across the street, from the building lobby, from a delivery drone that had "malfunctioned" near his window. "He's home," Marcus said, checking his tablet. "I should be opening his email right about... now." On screen, they saw lights shift in Tom's apartment. Movement. Then stillness. Vanessa imagined the moment. Tom opened his personal email. Seeing the anonymous message. Reading the subject line: Singapore Transaction - Final Warning. Marcus's phone buzzed. He checked it, smiled. "He just called his attorney. Panicking. Asking what to do about the SEC inquiry that was just opened into the Singapore deal." "There's no actual SEC inquiry," Vanessa said. "No. But there's a very convincing fake notice sent from a spoofed government email address. And a real attorney who received an anonymous tip about Tom's involvement in finan
CHAPTER 42: CALCULATIONS
Noah sat in his room at the Swiss facility, notebook open, pencil moving rapidly across the page. Numbers. Equations. Probability trees branching into infinite possibilities. All of them centered on one question: Would his father survive the next six months? The answer kept changing. Getting worse. When Noah had first arrived three weeks ago, the probability had been 67%. Not great, but manageable. His father was resourceful, had Wei's support, had learned to navigate the rebirth world. Now it was 42%. And dropping. Noah wrote out the variables: Government Investigation: 89% chance of systematic surveillance within 60 days. 73% chance of attempted detention within 90 days. If detained, 34% survival probability. Rebirth Community Retaliation: 76% chance of assassination attempt within 45 days. 62% chance of success if attempted. Multiple actors, difficult to predict coordination. Vanessa's Revenge: Unknown probability. Too many variables. She was changing, transforming into s
You may also like
The Billionaire Pauper
JOHNSON202.4K viewsThe Rise Of The Unknown Zillionaire Heir
Gem Lynne162.1K viewsSecretly Rich Son in Law
Banin SN196.0K viewsThe Heir's Revenge
Twine Twin79.4K viewsZAYDEN CROSS THE IRON GUARDIAN
Jane Howell566 viewsLudwig Harold - the Almighty God of War
Ary_Smith599 viewsRise Of The Student Pauper
Jace Draven8.3K viewsTHE DRAGON SON IN LAW RETURNS
Pink616 views